December 22, 2010 - An early morning fire destroyed a detached garage and all the vehicles inside it at 3920 Sand Bar Ct. in Oxford Township.

The blaze occurred around 4:20 a.m. Sunday, north of Stanton Rd. and east of Baldwin Rd.

"They heard a boom or a pop, looked out the window and saw the flames," said Fire Chief Pete Scholz. "The entire thing was engulfed in flames."

When firefighters arrived on the scene, Scholz said, "All that was standing was a skeleton of the structure at that point. Just the poles were standing. That's all that was left."

It took firefighters about 20 minutes to get the blaze under control, plus another two hours on scene to make sure it was completely out.

The cause of the fire is unknown and is being reviewed by the Oakland County Sheriff's Fire Investigation Unit.

"There was basically nothing left of it to even look at," Scholz said. "At this point, nobody's got any idea as far as cause or origin."

In addition to a variety of shop tools, several vehicles were inside the garage at the time of the fire. All were destroyed including a 1971 Jaguar, Subaru Forester and five motorcycles.

Scholz estimated the structural loss to be about $10,000 and the loss in contents to be between $40,000 and $50,000.

CJ Carnacchio is editor for The Oxford Leader. He lives in the Village of Oxford with his wife Connie and daughter Larissa. When he's not busy working on the newspaper, he enjoys cigars/pipes, Martinis/Scotch, hunting and fishing.